Demon's Dawning
by darkphoneix
Summary: My first work of fiction. Ranma is having some major problems, with demons and gods alike. See what he does about it.
1. Demon's Dawning: Prologue

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and AMG are property of whoever currently holds publishing   
right. In no way do I intend to make money from this story, intending it only for the   
enjoyment of myself and others.(Does anybody actually go around and check for   
disclaimers? I mean is it really why that important? I'm sure the companies that produce   
the anime that we all love have better things to do than pester fanfic writers.)  
  
Author's notes: This will be my first published fic so please don't be too harsh.   
C&C welcome at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com. I almost forgot, this is gonna be dark   
and possibly violent.  
  
DEMON'S DAWNING: Prologue  
  
  
Throughout the village sounds of children's laughter could be heard, bright banners   
and lamps in a rainbowof colors hung between huts, and the ceremonial drums beat   
a steady, merry rhythm. The year's harvest had been greater than any in recent  
memory and ensured that no one would go hungry in the coming winter. All ready   
the heat of summer had been driven back and autumn would follow soon after.   
  
  
In the village square a large gathering of women pooled around a rope suspended log   
that would be the stage for the nights entertainment. For an amazon, entertainment   
usually meant a fight so bets on who the various victors in the separate age brackets  
were being hastily conducted. Two of the young women, teenagers really, broke  
from the crowd, giggling and generally having a good time.  
  
  
  
"You're no fun Ku Lon! He's just a stupid man. There's plenty of them in the village   
and not a single one that wouldn't worship the ground you walk on," said the girl   
with short pink hair.  
  
  
"Happosai is different, Mia. He's an outsider but he's so strong and cute and his   
eyes...." Ku Lon sighed forlornly.  
  
  
"If I didn't know any better I'd say you're in love. But that can't be right, you're Ku   
Lon, future matriarch of the Joketsozuko and all around hard ass," claimed the girl  
identified as Mia. As they walked towards the main gate Mia made a point to add   
a little extra sway to her hips whenever passing a man.  
  
  
"Exactly. Future matriarch. My life is all ready planned out for me, even who I'll   
marry." Ku Lon absent mindedly threw a rock at Mu Tsin. The boy just couldn't get  
it threw his blind head that she wasn't interested.  
  
  
"Have you thought of challenging Happosai? If he is as strong as you say then maybe  
he can defeat you and then no one will be able to force you into an unwanted   
marriage," said Mia, trying to cheer her friend who only minutes ago had been   
her normal bubbly self, but was now acting like that Hibiki man that visits   
every so often.   
  
  
" Hahaha,"laughed Ku Lon bitterly. "Great-grandmother would find him and that  
would be the end of his life. You know that the ruthless bitch would do anything to   
see our clan joined with Elder Lo Xian's."  
  
  
Passing the gate guards who acknowledged them with a curt nod and a slight tilting  
of their spears, both girls noticed four cloaked figures approaching by way of the   
main road. Representatives of the Emperor weren't due for several weeks and the   
border guards or patrols should've stop any outsiders from coming his close to the   
village unescorted. Envoys from one of the sister villages would have been   
announced and heavily escorted. These observations combined with the fact that   
even in the midday sun the figures seemed surrounded in a pool of writhing   
shadows alerted Ku Lon and Mia who quickly turned to warn the guards.  
  
The warning, however, was unnecessary. Not only had both gate guards noticed but   
the few archers   
  
stationed along the walls and half a dozen elders also. The old women drawn by the  
extremely focused negative emotions and the massive imbalance created by the valley's   
chi being drained.  
  
  
"Signal all those outside the village to return at once. I want the village sealed now,"   
called a trollish old woman.  
  
Instantly people leapt into action, literally. A young girl, not yet in her teens with short  
black hair bounded over to a raised platform where a massive horn sat. With all the power   
her lungs could muster she blew three short bursts signaling the return command then   
a minute later followed with another longer blow leaving the girl breathless.  
  
The drums immediately ceased and children were herded to the communal buildings where   
they could be more easily guarded without diverting valuable warriors. Each entrance was   
closed with huge iron bound, wooden gates then barred from the inside.  
  
"What do you think is going on?" asked one of the men to another who was tidying up   
the armory.  
  
"It is none of our concern. Our place is not to ask questions about matters that are   
obviously women's business," answered the other man.  
  
Ku Lon just rolled her eyes as she removed a sword from one of the racks along the   
wall. She met Mia outside the underground weapons vault. Her friend's hut had been   
closer allowing her to retrieve her own bonbori but Ku Lon who lived on the opposite end   
of the village had to settle for a standard sword.  
  
"Let's go. The elders seem very...agitated. Something interesting is bound to happen."   
Ku Lon followed at Mia's side.  
  
  
  
  
The outsiders were only a dozen yards from the gate by the time Ku Lon and Mia had   
attained a place on the wall to watch the approaching conflict.  
  
"Be gone from here dark ones," Su Lin Mao, the current Matriarch ordered.  
  
A deep and somewhat disturbing in nature laugh was the only reponse.  
  
"You will not be warned again," responded the Matriarch.  
  
One of the outsiders threw back the hood of his cloak revealing a boyishly handsome   
man in his mid-to-late twenties with a raven's mane of black hair tied in a lose ponytail.   
His eyes even from a distance   
  
shown with an eerie bluish white hue that only served to emphasize the two blood-red   
inverted tear drops at their corners, matched by a larger one on his forehead. "Damn, I   
guess we'd better be leaving guys. Us demons really have to be careful around four   
hundred year old trolls." His voice was rich and deep, betraying none of his dark   
intentions. If indeed there were any.  
  
The outsider to his direct left threw back his hood at some unseen signal. "Yes,   
perhaps this paragon of matronly hideousness has a point. I fear that if she were to   
look upon my visage much longer I shall turn to stone for surely she is a descendant   
of the gorgons of old."  
  
The first man looked momentarily bewildered but then said, "Uh....sure, whatever   
you say, Kuno."  
  
"Enough of this!" growled the one to the man identified as Kuno's left. "Get on with   
it Ranma! Our time on this plane is short and my thirst for vengeance will be sated!"  
  
Quietly, so only his companions could hear him Ranma said, "Geeze, you need to stop   
hanging around Kuno. He's getting' to ya." His voice rose again, "Here's the deal.   
You have an hour to give us the   
  
amazon, Ku Lon or you will all be destroyed. Not that weren't not gonna kill you all   
anyway but if we get to torture her for a few days I might just make your deaths  
painless."  
  
The other three nodded in agreement.  
  
  
  
At first she wanted to laugh. It was just too funny. Four men, obviously sorcerers   
or something pretending to be demons. Then when Ku Lon saw her Great-grand-  
mothers eyes fixed on the man who had just and she followed the gaze only then   
did she pay any attention to the strange tattoos he possessed. Swiveling   
  
back to her Great-grandmothers face something struck her as odd: The old bitch looked   
ready to piss al over herself. Then the conversation picked up again.  
  
"Enough of this!" growled on of the still hooded men. He sounded strained with   
emotion: rage in particular. "Get on with it Ranma! Our time on this plane is short   
and my thirst for vengeance will be sated!"  
  
"Here's the deal. You have an hour to give us the amazon Ku Lon or you will all be   
destroyed. Not that weren't not gonna kill you all anyway but if we get to torture her   
for a few days I might just make your deaths painless," ordered Ranma. The words   
were carried on an unnaturally bitter and fetid breeze that promised untold suffering   
and pain.  
  
Ku Lon gasped as she heard her name and against her will she began to cry. The   
way the demon or sorcerer or whatever he was had made his demand had assured   
her that she would die.  
  
All eyes turned from the quartet to Su Lin Mao, the oldest of all elders and undisputedly   
the greatest warrior in amazon history. She began to draw herself up to speak but   
a sunbeam breached clouds no one realized were there and carried with it a vision   
of divine beauty only marred by the combat golden combat armor and massive   
broadsword she wore.  
  
  
  
Ranma sneered at her. "Ah, Bell-chan. I was wondering when you would show up.   
It won't change the outcome of this day but your presence has served to lighten   
my spirits greatly."  
  
"What a vision of loveliness. So much like your sisters yet so innocent and....delicious,"   
said Kuno. He looked at her hungrily and continued, "Are your they well? When   
last I saw them they were rather distracted." The four men laughed uproariously.  
  
Belldandy, trembling in impotent rage drew her massive sword and lunged towards   
Kuno at incredible speed shouting, "Die, bastard!!!" She never reached him as an   
upraised hand from Ranma and a bolt of pure, demonic blackness drove her through   
the wall and into the village.  
  
"Remember, one hour. And don't think of resisting. If a goddess can't stop us what   
will you do?" With his message delivered Ranma, Kuno and his two yet to be revealed   
companions disappeared in a cloud of acrid black smoke.  
  
More author's notes: Whaddya think of the prologue to 'Demon's Dawning'?  
  



	2. Demon's Dawning Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and AMG are property of whoever currently holds publishing right. In no way do I intend to make money from this story, intending it only for the enjoyment of myself and others.(Does anybody actually go around and check for disclaimers? I mean is it really why that important? I'm sure the companies that produce the anime that we all love have better things to do than pester fanfic writers.)  
  
Author's notes: This will be my first published fic so please don't be too harsh. C&C welcome at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com. I almost forgot, this is gonna be dark and possibly violent.  
  
  
DEMON'S DAWNING: Chapter One  
  
  
With a gasp Ranma woke from the nightmare, trembling and covered in sweat. He almost cried when he recalled the vivid dream, only one of the nightly terrors he now encountered whenever he slept. They had started almost a month before when he had been feeling particularly down, immersed in a depression so great that Ryoga had taken one look at him and apologized for threatening to kill him.  
  
**Flashback**  
  
Ranma and Akane were walking to school the first day the failed wedding. He looked down to see his fiance, and sorta love interest, scowling mightily at only something she could see.  
  
"Hey, what's botherin' you," he asked as cheerfully as possible. It didn't come across as cheerful though, at least not to Akane who's rather warped view of Ranma took the question as some sort of insult.  
  
She turned an accusing glare to Ranma and with venom laced words said, "What is there that could possibly be bothering me Ranma? I mean here we are, walking to school like it's nothing. Do you know how much crap I'm going to have to deal with when we get to school? You and your pervert friends will probably just laugh it up, right? Talk about what would have happened if we got married!"  
  
"What do you mean 'me and my perverted friends'? I don't have any perverted friends, well maybe Hiroshi and Daisuke, but would I tell them happened?" he asked, then muttered under his voice, "stupid tomboy."  
  
Could he really not know, Akane asked herself. Just when the anger was about to be reined in she heard the 'tomboy' comment and immediately summoned forth a mallet."Why yo-"she stopped mid-tirade as a familiar sound flitted through her ears,  
  
*Ring*Ring*  
  
Ranma found himself planted conveniently in the ground as Shampoo's bicycle tire impacted his head, then after a moment of hesitation Akane's mallet.  
  
"Airen! Shampoo so happy see! Glad violent girl not kill!" Shampoo fairly bubbled with excitement. Just as Ranma pried himself free and stood, she was latched onto him like her life depended on it. "Airen miss Shampoo? Take Shampoo on date?"  
  
Unnoticed by victim or assailant, Akane had a concrete melting battle aura going and a barrel sized glowing mallet raised above her head.  
  
Ranma himself was tempted to let his own aura free and incenerate the amazon. He was sure he could make it look like an accident. Who would believe that he had burnt her up with his own life-force besides Nerimians. Where in the hell had those thoughts come from, he asked himself fearfully.  
  
Shampoo thinking that her airen's lack of resistance for the half-second that he had thought of killing her was a sign of acceptance, increased her hold and slipped a hand down to his crotch.  
  
"Gah! Shampoo, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Ranma finally managed to demand, trying to distance himself from the amorous amazon by pushing against the nearest objects.  
  
"Oh Airen!" exclaimed Shampoo as Ranma's hands enclosed her breasts.  
  
-At this time we choose to zoom to an overhead view, thrity feet above the scene.-  
  
Deafening explosion.  
  
A luminous azure blue lit the street with an unnatural and slightly hazely light. Concrete pealed from the ground in great chunks and was sent flying in all directions. The fence that separated the canal from pedestrians crumpled under strain and a purple-haired girl went flying into the water below. A boy used to constaint threats to his life automatically takes a combat stance and brings just enough of his battle aura up to resist the force of his attacker's. Combate hardened eyes sweep the area and just for an instant he prepares to strike out with a debilitating blow but when his main vision catches up with the periphreal and he sees the source of the ki he loses all pretenses of defense and takes on a confused tilt-headed posture.  
  
-Back to ground level-  
  
What the fuck? Was going through Ranma's mind. He'd thought that Ryouga had come after him again, the ki had that feel to it of extreme anger but no depression, similar to what Ryouga' felt like when he was in one of those berserker rages. But Akane?   
  
Akane had little on her mind but inflicting pain on Ranma and Shampoo as she saw them embracing. Not even two full days after literally bombing Akane's wedding and here Shampoo was trying to get into Ranma's pants, in the street. Then Shampoo grabbed Ranma's crotch and he her breasts. Rational thought left her then, to be replaced with something she'd never before known. Killing rage. The kind that mothers get when they see their children killed before their very eyes or when junkies need that one hit to get them by till tomorrow. Ranma must die, she realized. Shampoo must die, came next.  
  
The power exploded forth from her. Some deep part of her mind, still sentient, wondered if this was what it felt like for Ranma when he had fought against and killed Saffron. If the moment came when perfect clarity was reached and you drew power from your very soul. It must be. The ki, her lifeforce, her soul, it was like an caged tiger, ready to strike and devour its meal. Without thought, incapable of thought, she turned her tiger loose. It was bliss, the feeling of wholeness she felt as it rushed from her body, unfocused yet of a power few could ever hope to achieve, much less survive.  
  
His battle aura, still present through bodily instinct not will, was the only thing keeping the flesh from being flayed from his bones. Ranma stood stock still while the storm of ki raged around him, eating away at the surrounding area, bringing memories of another time when death sought him and should have taken him but was denied. Then he had lashed out with his soul, the desperation clouding his judgement, and like watching from outside of his body, he, Ranma Saotome, had felled a god. But now the very person that he had sacrificed his innocence for, the one person in the world that he would give up his honor for, Akane, the most precious thing in his existance, had turned against him and he knew in his bones he would die if he didn't defend himself. How could he? It felt wrong somehow. Not just like his heart told him that it was wrong and that he would die to make her happy but that he simply _could not_ do it, even if he wanted to.  
  
-Momentary Recess-  
  
Now let us consider for a moment, from an objective standpoint what makes a fighter of Ranma's class. Healing: somewhere around twenty times normal human average. Learning Curve: would make Edison weep with envy. Skill: an equal or better of masters three hundred years his senior. Ki: learned to project it in days, defeated a dragon's descendant who was himself a virtual living reactor and a phoenix, a being of legend and awe. These are not natural. Oh and he survived the nekoken training with his sanity intact. Okay, you say what about his opponents? Ryoga: a brutish , and unbalanced maniac who without a special technique that while powerful and hard to learn barely puts him on the playing field with Ranma. His skill is non-existant comparitively and his ki is derived from his own knowledge of just how pathetic he is. Happosai and Cologne while both powerful have neither fought all out against Ranma and neither has he against they. They don't believe that he would stand a chance and he knows that they couldn't hold a candle he he let go. you may not believe it but the truth seldom is taken to heart.  
  
-We now resume our regularly scheduled program.-  
  
Once again it came to him. He remembered now. Knew who he was. Knew why he couldn't strike out at Akane. He saw her for what she was and the spell she didn't even know she held over him. And he knew what he was. He didn't reject it now, he embraced it and when he did the world opened to his view. Ki, black as death itself rose and coiled itself around him. Ranma's solid black eyes seemed to dim the light of the tempest around him and the moment that the serpent was about to strike and end the threat, the object of his hate, the one being that he would happily torture for all of his remaining days, a single green bolt of ki no bigger than a finger pushed its way through the violent outpouring of anger and struck his target in the neck. She slumped to the ground unconscious. At that moment the storm was gone and the threat with it, but as it left so to left the blackness and the memories. They howled with a life of their own as they were once again buried under mental shields older than his physical body. Though gone mostly a piece had remained. The feelings of hate and revulsion, the need to kill , and the will to do it. Ranma himself howled in misery at the thought of himself killing Akane and nearly collapsed under the strain it placed on his, at present, delicate psyche.  
****  
  
Cologne was going about her business as usual. There really wasn't much more to do. The entire restaurant had taken little more than two minutes to clean and with Shampoo gone she could meditate a bit. Mousse wasn't stupid enough to interrupt her...on second thought maybe he was. A quick ward ensured that the door would not open for none but the strongest of individuals. Cologne stripped herself of the confining robe, crouched down as best as her little body, and seemed to fold out of a cacoon. Her entire body enlongated and wrinkles disappeared, hair gone white with age returned to its natural black, and with a final touch of magic a dress of some material finer than silk but with the look of something durable beyond compare appeared. Her face reveiled odd markings, two small circles at the corners of her eyes and a larger one in the center of her forehead, all of which were green.  
  
She took a lotus position in the air above her bed mat just encase. Whenever she had to shield her son-in-law her mana levels were heavily drained and falling on her ass wasn't the greatest thing to do when the body you were using had no martail arts training and the fall was a good five feet. Previously her shields had held for months at a time but for a week now, ever since that unfortunate incident with Saffron, Son-in-law had required everyday attention. Thinkning of the object of her concern brought about another wave of sorrow. Shampoo was know bound in marriage to the reincarnation of chaos and destruction, more accurately the mortal incarnation of the evil demon god of chaos and destruction and when not in her goddess form she didn't even know it herself. She sighed wearily as she began the spells, weaving magic into intracate weaves and patterns....only to be struck with a wave of such raw unadulterated evil that she lost consciousness, automatically reverting to her Cologne form. Without the knowledge of why she had to go to her son-in-law but with an overpowering compulsion to do so, Cologne reached out with her aura to find him. She found an explosion of anger fueled ki from Akane so strong that her own ire rose just from mental contact with it and opposing it was a blackness infinitely more dangerous, it was her son-in-law, in all his evil glory.  
  
Cologne assumed that he had been possessed by some sort of oni that was perverting Ranma's soul and Akane was coming along for the ride, trapped in an induced state of rage that would eventually drain her body of even the small amount of energy needed to maintain brain activity. In a blur of motion she reacquired her staff, she sure didn't remember leaving it by the door and that ward was there when she came in, must be the excitement getting to me, she thought. Another blur and the sound of a pogo staff hitting a solid surface such as concrete or asphault hundreds of times a minute siganled her departure.  
****  
  
The sight of battle if it could be called that, brought fear to the old woman's heart. Akane stood with a huge mallet held at her side with ki raging uncontrolled around her. The storm formed an odd bubble nearly seventy feet in circumferance around the girl with the only untouched areas being a small patch of pristine sidewalk around Akane and Ranma. And goddess protect us all, thought Cologne in horror as she looked upon Ranma. There were ancient stories told of men who looked like that, they were used to scare little children. They also said to run like your hair was on fire if you saw one. Her theory switched from oni possession of Ranma and Akane going crazy in a magic induced rage to oni possession of Akane and Ranma embracing darkness.   
  
Oni possessed or not, her body could not function beyond normal life support if its ki flows were radically scrambled. As her one and only hope, Cologne focused nearly all of her ki, leaving just enough to maintain her anicient body until she could rest, and formed it into a projectile no more than three inches in length and a third that in width. She fired it from her cupped hands directly at the pressure point on Akane's neck that would render her unconscious. It barely made it through in tact and nearly all of its power was gone, but the tiny ki blast served its purpose as it struck true.  
  
Not two seconds later Cologne looked from her roof-top perch upon a much changed landscape. gone were the pyrotechnics that would make that James Cameron man who made those movies she loved, salivate. Now Akane, her face gaunt and pale slumped to the ground sleeping peacefully. Ranma in his own little patch of paradise bellowed in rage...or sorrow, it was too hard to tell for certain.  
  
  
  
Author's note: Ah, hell! It's not finished. Well when I get back to my dorm room and can get on a computer whenever I feel like, I'll finish the first chapter. Promise! Send me some C&C on this little tidbit and I may make some changes or something, you know, reader input actually being listened to and stuff.  
  
  



End file.
